Rapid, reliable, and inexpensive characterization of polymers, particularly nucleic acids, has become increasingly important. One notable project, known as the Human Genome Project, has as its goal sequencing the entire human genome, which is over three billion nucleotides.
Typical current nucleic acid sequencing methods depend either on chemical reactions that yield multiple length DNA strands cleaved at specific bases, or on enzymatic reactions that yield multiple length DNA strands terminated at specific bases. In each of these methods, the resulting DNA strands of differing length are then separated from each other and identified in strand length order. The chemical or enzymatic reactions, as well as the technology for separating and identifying the different length strands, usually involve tedious, repetitive work. A method that reduces the time and effort required would represent a highly significant advance in biotechnology.